Wednesday, 31 December 2014

Deal Me In Challenge 2015

Okay, only one more challenge ....... really ..........! Jay at Bibliophilica is having his yearly Deal Me In challenge and it looks like such fun, I couldn't resist. I've been watching Dale @ Mirror With Clouds participate all last year, and Marianne gave me an idea with a twist for it that should work wonderfully!

The rules are:

What is the goal of the project?

To read 52 short stories in 2015 (that’s only one per week)

What do I need?

1) Access to at least fifty-two
short stories (don’t own any short story collections or anthologies? See links
to online resources below) 2) A deck of cards 3) An average of perhaps just
thirty minutes of reading time each week

Where do I post* about my stories?

(*You don’t have to post about
every single story, of course, but if you have something to say about the story
you read any given week, your fellow participants would love to hear it.)

1) On your own blog or website if
you have one (I will link to your post at the bottom of my weekly post. I
currently plan to do my weekly post on Sundays)

2) if you don’t have a blog or
website you may comment on my weekly post, sharing thoughts on your own story –
or start one at WordPress or blogspot – it’s easy and free to create a basic
blog.

How do I pick which stories to
read?

(The 52 stories themselves are
totally up to you.) Before you get start reading, come up with a roster of
fifty-two stories (you can use any source) and assign each one to a playing
card in a standard deck of cards. It can be fun to use different suits for
different types of stories, but that is optional. Each “week,” (if you’re like
me, you may occasionally fall a story or two behind) you draw a card at random
from your deck and that is the story you will read. There are links to last
year’s participants’ rosters here
if you want to see some examples.

What if I don’t have time to read a
story every single week?

Try one of the challenge variations
noted below, the Fortnight (or “payday” if you prefer) version is one story
every two weeks or the “Full Moon Fever” version with just thirteen stories
read or selected on seeing each full moon…

How do I sign up?

Leave a comment below with your URL
and I will link you. My first wrap-up post of the year (I post weekly, usually
Sunday night or Monday morning) will include links to any new Deal Me In posts
and a list of the participants with links to their roster of stories.

What is the purpose?

To have FUN and to be exposed to
new authors and stories and maybe get in the habit of reading a short story a
week. Isn’t that enough? :-)

Now I've decided to follow Marianne's lead and adjust the challenge to work for my reading plans for the year. Part of my plan for 2015 was to try to read more children's classics, essays and poems for the year, so instead of reading all short stories, I'm going to split it into four categories: Short Stories, Essays, Poems and Children's Classics.

I'm really looking forward to this challenge. In the next day or so, I'll post my list of titles corresponding to the playing card deck. I'm not promising I'll be able to read all 52 of them, but I'll certainly do my best!

I don't know why I find it so hard to pick up a children's book, because I love them, but somehow they get lost in the other books and left. This twist in the challenge will make me get to them, so I'm looking forward to it. Thanks for being part of the inspiration for me to join the challenge!

Cat, I think Jay's rules are quite open in that you don't have to post about everything you read and there are two other levels that allow for 2 short stories per month and even one. In any case, doing it for yourself certainly takes the pressure off but I would love to see your list! :-)

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